Two screenings of Levitt Bowie film at BCPA March 5

John McNamara / Capital Gazette

Jeff Krulik, a Bowie native and documentarian, will show the latest rough cut of his documentary examining life in Bowie during the 1960s at the Bowie Center for the Performing Arts on March 5. There will be free screenings at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m.

Jeff Krulik, a Bowie native and documentarian, will show the latest rough cut of his documentary examining life in Bowie during the 1960s at the Bowie Center for the Performing Arts on March 5. There will be free screenings at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m.

Local filmmaker/researcher/documentarian Jeff Krulik says he plans to have his cinematic chronicle of Bowie life in the 1960s, "Tales from Belair and Bowie" finished this fall.

In the meantime, he's going to give the folks in his hometown another chance to see how the work has evolved. Krulik will screen the film — in all its mid-'60s glory — at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. on March 5 at the Bowie Center for the Performing Arts. The screenings are free and open to the public.

Each showing will be followed by a 30-minute panel discussion featuring Krulik, Mike Rauck, the curator of the "Bowie Living" Facebook page, and James Smart, a Bowie native who is writing a book about the early days of the Levitt-built community.

Pam Williams, the city's Manager of Historic Properties and Bowie's unofficial historian, organized a pair of "rough cut" screenings last October, as well as the the upcoming sequel. She was stunned at the community's appetite for Krulik's vision of local history.

"We had a such a tremendous response the first time," Williams said. "We were bowled over. Never in a million years did we think we'd get the crowd we did."

The 6 p.m. screening of the 45-minute film on Oct. 26 took place in one of the smaller rooms in the BCPA; 115 people squeezed into a venue designed for 100. Williams said she didn't know how many got turned away.

So, the 8 p.m. show got moved into the big auditorium, where almost every seat in the 500-seat lower level was filled. Both of the March 5 shows will be held at the larger venue.

Krulik was just as gratified by the large-than-expected turnout that night, calling it "probably one of the highlights of my career." That's high praise coming from the man who created such cult classics as "Heavy Metal Parking Lot" and "Led Zeppelin Played Here."

The screening also enabled him to see the film up on the big screen for the first time and decide what worked and what didn't, what needed to be polished or eliminated and where he might add other material.

Krulik thinks the latest version could be perhaps an hour long, with the final product reaching "feature length" of perhaps 90 minutes or even two hours.

The version he showed in October "wasn't ready for prime-time," he said. "I have changes and some additions, some things to further flesh out and connect the dots and draw out this great local history."

Even with the changes he has planned, the heart of the story will remain the shared experiences among those who bought into developer William Levitt's vision of an instant suburb outside Washington, D.C., a vision that transformed the city forever.

"Is (the latest cut) going to be radically different? No," Krulik said. "The fact is, I think people would still enjoy it even if they're not from Bowie because it's a window into that time – the suburban post-war experience of the '60s and beyond."

He may be adding some of his own footage that's been available on YouTube for a while now – an interview with Mrs. Cunningham, his old principal at Buckingham Elementary, plus some other stuff.

An October 2016 interview with Bowie filmmaker Jeff Krulik, who discusses his project "Tales from Belair and Bowie." (John McNamara / BSMG)

An October 2016 interview with Bowie filmmaker Jeff Krulik, who discusses his project "Tales from Belair and Bowie." (John McNamara / BSMG)

He's got some material he'd like to incorporate on the long-closed Bowie Racetrack, which was such a part of the city's identity – before and after Levitt created the Bowie that everyone recognizes today. He's also mulling some additional material on the old Bowie Inn, a favorite watering hole among locals for many years before its demise.

"There are some things I'm playing around with," he said.

But, he makes no promises. As he has repeatedly said, the work continues to evolve.

Krulik expects to be tinkering with it right up until the next showing, so he's not sure exactly what form this particular version will take.

Prior to the October screening, he and his editor were fiddling with the final product that late into the afternoon in Alexandria, Va. They then high-tailed it out to Bowie in time for the BCPA premier. Krulik was so frazzled that night that he forgot to bring along his business cards.

He's delighted his hometown received his work so well. That response, he said, has spurred him to step up his efforts to get the darn thing finished, once and for all. He expects to do a lot more work on it over the summer.

"It's going to be cleaned up and polished a bit more," he said. "My intent is to complete it, so at the next screening, it's finished. I intend to work very hard between now and the fall to finish it. I don't want to keep showing works in progress."